Hello gamers 
This was actually supposed to be called "The net's shortest review of "Sins of a Solar Empire"", but it somehow got waaay longer than I expected 
I'm presenting you SWAT Portal's first - a game review by one of it's members, who's opinion is completely subjective and independent
So I got the game on Wednesday (as far as I remember :]) and played it for some time.
So at the very beginning it brought me 2 surprises:
1) The .iso was ~700mb, the installed game ~1.5gb. For comparing - FreeLancer was 700mb, StarLancer - 2x700=1400mb, but SpaceForce2 - about 4gb if I remember right.
2) The thing had no copy protection. I remember reading Tuesday at one computers-related portal an interview w/ one Stardock's big guy. He said something imo really wise: why waste ur money on copy protection, if its audience (the software pirates [SIZE=1]like me[/SIZE]) still would crack it? It's just uselessly spent money.
The game is a RTS (like Command & Conquer), but in space. There are 3 races, which (like C&C) have a lot of things common, but each one of them has some special features - both upgrade options and special attacks.
The building options are quite limited: 10 buildings for each type (civil or military) [I've played some RTS's w/ like 50 buildings in like 5 types or so :)]. Each race can build ~6 light fighters, ~4 heavy fighters and ~5 capital ships. Most of them have some special features and attacks, tho they're balanced - if race A ship has big guns, then it has poor defense. And vice versa. Also, there is a feature to rename everything you own - for example, the Flagship of my fleet was "MGT Magnezia"
Upgrades can be bought only when research facilities have been built on any of the planets (each planet is like a whole new field for u to play on - they have different stats too [including how much u can build near it]). There are 2 kinds of research facilities - the civil and the military. Both provide different upgrades (duh) - from new ships, stations, equipment (even laser cannons that can blast your enemy from even a very distant planet) to stat boosters, to ... eeh a lot of stuff Note that you can also lose a planet, if your enemy kills all of it's inhabitants.
There are three types of resources: Money, metal and crystals. Money is used for everything. It is constantly produced at a rate, that depends on the number of inhabitants on your planets, the planet development (upgrade) level and other stuff. Metal & Crystals are being automatically mined from nearby asteroids. Crystals are being mined really slow, but they're only used for advanced stuff.
The single player consists of many skirmishes. Sadly, there is no storyline to connect them. You can do them in any order you want. Or you can create your own. The map editor isn't visual tho - u set the parameters and the game creates the universe, based on them.
So after a couple of days of playing Sins, I've come up w/ a small list of pros and cons.
Pros
+ Nice, intuitive gameplay
+ Doesn't require a uber-super-duper-hyper-notyetevenreleased computer - the game should run fine even on medium-low-end machines. My 2-3yrs old PC was running it on about medium-high settings @ about 50-60fps.
+ The graphics are really nice, even on lower settings
+ Controls - really straightforward and easy
+ No copy protection
+ Not a disk eater
+ Lots of upgrades
+ MultiPlayer
+ Integrated Map Editor (No WYSIWYG tho)
Cons
- Not too much building options. But that's forgivable considering the big amount of upgrades
- No story
- Could wish for bigger differences between races
In conclusion I can say two things:
* Highly addictive (but in a good way :D)
* Try it, if you can It's a really cool game.
So that's it Thanks for reading, magnet out.
